Opening of the Maidstone Branch Railway

Opening of the Maidstone Branch Railway, Opening of the Branch Railway from the Dover Line to Maidstone, 1844, September 28; Newton, of Wingham, Writing of the "King's Town" of Maidstone, in 1741, Says, "the Country Almost Every Where Round the Town is Full of Populous Villages, and Good Pleasant Seats of the Nobility and Gentry. The Greatest Blemish is the Roads, which Used to Be Rough, Stony, and Narrow; But Are Now Much Mended and Improved on Every Side of the Town, to Its Very Great Advantage, and to the Honour of Several Worthy Gentlemen, Who Cheerfully Contributed to So Good a Work." Much, However, Remained to Be Done; the Famous City of Caer-Medwag Continued to Our Own Day to Be Almost an Isolated Place. The Roads, Generally, Were "Soft," and the Only Good Ones Were Rendered Comparatively Valueless by the Steep Hills in Their Course. The Reproach of Maidstone is Now Wiped Away. On Tuesday Last a New Branch Railway, from the Paddock-Wood Station of the South-Eastern Line, Put the Town in Close and Easy Communication with the Metropolis, or the North, and with Folkestone and the Continent, or the South. These Great Advantages - to Say Nothing of the Greater Moral Ones Likely to Accrue to the Benighted Villagers of Mid-Kent - Seemed to Have Been Fully Appreciated by the Mayor, Jurats, and Commonalty of Maidstone, for, on the Occasion of Opening the Branch Line, They Gave the Directors and Friends of the Dover Company an Invitation to Dine with Them Under Circumstances of More Than Usual "Jollification." Accordingly, at Eleven O'Clock on Tuesday Morning Last, a Special Train, Richly Dressed with Flags and Flowers, Left the Bricklayers' Arms with the Company, and, Proceeding on Its Way, Reached the Paddock-Wood, a Distance of Forty-Five Miles, in Little More Than One Hour and a Half. Here the Admirable Signals Recently Adopted by the Company, Were Examined by the Visitors, and Their Use, in Connection with the New Line, Explained.